Unlawful detention by KGB

For Yaraslau Halouchankau and Uladzimir Rahanau, young members of Free Trade Union from Brest, celebration of Christmas in European countries ended with writs to the KGB and long talks in one of its offices.

Uladzimir Rahanau was summoned to the KGB first and was kept there for four hours. He says that the KGB officers paid interest to him for several reasons: ’First, they said they had received an inquiry from Denmark whether there is such a citizen and needed to check whether I could be recruited as a foreign spy. They also added absurd information that I allegedly had participated in a mass action near the Belarusian Embassy.’

The KGB officers refused to show the inquiry referring to secrecy of the document. They also didn’t allow human rights defender Valiantsin Lazarenkau to represent the interests of the youngsters during the talk. First time she was even dispelled from the reception and had to wait for the end of the talk outdoors when the temperature was -16˚C. They also demanded Halouchankau to switch off his mobile phone.

Mr. Lazarenkau considers such actions of the KGB as a violation of the right to privacy.